Featured Reads: Week of 3/13

It’s the start of a new week and that means new featured reads! First, we’ve got an extended excerpt of debut author Jennifer Park’s The Shadows We Know By Heart, about a girl whose complicated family life starts to unravel after she finds herself falling for a mysterious boy who lives in the forest behind her house. We’re excited about this one and we’ll be reading it right along with you guys because, get this—it includes SASQUATCHES! Then, we’ve got three new full reads this week: in honor of St. Patrick’s Day coming up this Friday (March 17), we have Donna Jo Napoli’s Hush, the tale of an Irish Princess, kidnapped and sold into slavery; then we have A. R. Kahler’s Shades of Darkness, the first book in his fantasy trilogy described as American Gods meets The Secret History (The sequel, Echoes of Memory, goes on sale this week—March 14—so now’s a great time to start reading this series!); and finally, we’ve got Sarah Ockler’s #Scandal, an edgy, comedic novel about what happens when a Facebook scandal goes viral after prom. #Scandal is actually a bit of a “Greatest Hit” for Riveted—like Letting Ana Go, it was one of our most popular reads on Pulseit before we relaunched as Riveted, so we’re happy to bring it back for those of you that may be new to the site.

Just in case that’s not enough for you, we’ve still got quite a selection from last week available for a few more days: read the extended excerpt of Confessions of a High School Disaster, Emma Chastain’s YA novel in the spirit of Bridget Jones’s Diary; then there’s Blackhearts, Nicole Castroman’s debut novel re-imagining the story of Blackbeard the Pirate; there’s The Way I Used to Be, Amber Smith’s New York Times bestselling debut novel that “realistically looks at the lasting effects of trauma on love, relationships, and life” (School Library Journal, starred review). And wrapping up this week’s reads are two more full reads: Letting Ana Go, the harrowing account of anorexia and addiction in the tradition of Go Ask Alice, and Promposal, which we featured last week for National Promposal Day, which you all no doubt celebrated this past weekend!

Find out more about this week’s reads:

The Shadows We Know by Heartby Jennifer Park

In this haunting and luminescent debut novel, a girl’s complicated family life starts to unravel after she finds herself falling for a mysterious boy who lives in the forest behind her house.

Confessions of a High School Disasterby Emma Chastain

In the tradition of Bridget Jones’s Diary, a lovably flawed high school student chronicles her life as she navigates the highs and lows of family, friendship, school, and love in a diary that sparkles with humor and warmth.

#scandalby Sarah Ockler

Shades of Darknessby A.R. Kahler

American Gods meets The Secret History in this “eerie, wistful” (Karsten Knight, author of the Wildefire series) start to a fantasy trilogy about Kaira Winters, the murders that keep happening at her artsy boarding school, and the lengths she must go to in order to protect the people she loves.

Promposalby Rhonda Helms

Prom should be one of the most memorable nights of your life. But for Camilla and Joshua, some elaborate promposals are getting in the way. Will they be able to land their dream dates in time for the dance?